Oakland Hills rough on PGA players' mistakes

AP PhotoLee Westwood wasn't happy with Oakland Hills' setup after his first-round 77 at the PGA Championship on Thursday.

BLOOMFIELD HILLS -- Lee Westwood bluntly stated that tough course setups suck the fun out of major championships, and the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills is the latest example of such diabolical stuff.

Westwood even played Oliver Stone with the conspiracy theory of the day when he said it looked like they had brushed the grass in the rough to slant back toward the tee for tougher shots, and that the rough close to the edges of the fairway and greens was too lush and thus too penal.

The Englishman, well, he shot a 7-over-par 77, and wasn't giddy about it. He might have hit the pub after Thursday's first round, but it wasn't to celebrate.

"It is a difficult course anyway with the greens and the pin positions to protect it," he said. "I am not sure you need rough as long as it is, and you certainly don't need to sweep it back towards the tee the night before the tournament when we have played it as it is in the practice rounds."

Oakland Hills was groomed, but the rough looked normal for a major championship -- very long and imposing.

It appears Westwood just found the rough a little too often, and it was leaning the wrong way for him each time. Or, he had the second worst day in the Detroit area. The worst day award, of course, went to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who went to jail for violating a court order.

As for the major golf in the suburbs, it was penal if a tee shot ventured just a few feet off the fairway, but shots in major championships are supposed to be in the fairway. Also, strangely enough, none of the leaders were complaining. They called it fast, firm and a tough test.

Sean O'Hair shot 69 and called it demanding.

"You've got to place your ball on every tee shot, and you've got to place your ball well on the greens," he said. "And it just kind of never lets up."

Phil Mickelson, who rallied to shoot 70 after a bogey-bogey start, was surprised at the transition from the course he practiced on early in the week to the course he played in the first round.

"I thought it would be a little firmer, a little faster, but it got a lot firmer and a lot faster."

A brief rain fell in the late afternoon, followed later by some more rain and a delay, but it's doubtful it changed the course much. It will likely only get tougher as the tournament goes on -- just the way Oakland Hills likes it.

Everybody noticed the kids bombing away at the place when the U.S. Amateur was held at Oakland Hills in 2002. Billy Haas, Jay's son, sat in the press room one day and talked about taking the ball over the corner trees at the 498-yard 18th with a 3-wood as if everybody could do it.

"You only have to carry it 315 yards or so," he said.

Oakland Hills was stunned. Who you going to call?

Rees Jones, that's who. He has been the man known for getting classic courses ready for club technology and majors in recent years. And this time he could work on one where his father, Robert Trent Jones, became famous. It was dad who came in and put new teeth in the original Donald Ross-design for the 1951 U.S. Open.

Jones added yards, bunkers and made a difficult course more difficult.

The Oakland Hills membership is proud of the South course moniker, "The Monster." Ben Hogan called it such after his 1951 U.S. Open win.

"The Monster" lives. Of it's 18 holes, just two played under par for those who had finished the suspended first round, and they were the only two par-5 holes on the par 70 championship course.

Only seven golfers were under par, and the leaders at 2-under 68 posted the highest leading score for a PGA Championship first round in 34 years.